Certain types of devices can be designed to interact with a user through speech. A user may provide a command by uttering speech. The device may respond with speech as part of a speech dialog. In response to a user intent determined by means of the speech dialog, the device may perform an action, such as playing music or providing information by speech.
A device such as this may be configured to perform various types of activities, such as playing music, reporting news, activating or controlling home appliances or other devices, performing general home automation, etc.
Operation of a device such as this is typically governed by software that the device executes. Often, specific behaviors and modes of the device are interdependent and governed by external stimuli. The response by a device to a given stimulus may depend on the current context or activity of the device. The software typically contains complex conditional logic that attempts to respond as desired by the developer of the device to any given stimulus at any given time.